


Coming Home

by fanfictiongreenirises



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Humor, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Avengers: Endgame Fix-It, Don't copy to another site, Fix-It, I guess you can count it as post Endgame, I took a sledgehammer to A:E, Irondad, Multi, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 16:30:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18595126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanfictiongreenirises/pseuds/fanfictiongreenirises
Summary: It's the Avengers' 10 year anniversary as a team. They sit down to watch a movie thatTimelyhas produced.In which I fix Endgame and make it more bearable. Contains spoilers for the movie.





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Look, this was meant to be crack and then it turned out to have angsty parts that I cried writing. This is basically how I'm coping with the movie.
> 
> THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME.

The end credits rolled. They watched as their movie counterparts, complete with their uniforms and weapons, with a Hollywood depiction of their faces, flashed across the screen, commemorating the decade since the Avengers had teamed up. Signatures of the cast members were scribbled on, the ink a silver that nodded to their anniversary. Tony wondered who had decided to give _Timely_ rights to make movies about their team.

Clint let out a gust of air. “Well,” he commented. “That was a doozy.”

Natasha, lounging beside him on the couch, shoved his shoulder. “Hey, at least you _survived_. They killed me off before I got to join the all-female squad.”

“So this is what happens when Hollywood thinks your superhero life is too boring,” Pepper said.

Tony rubbed her shoulder with the arm he had slung around it. “Don’t worry, honey. It’s plenty exciting for me even without the death and drama.” Little Morgan had fallen asleep in his lap halfway through the movie, after she’d seen all ‘her’ parts. Tony was glad she didn’t watch through till the end – it wasn’t him, but he didn’t want her to see the more fatal consequences of the superhero lifestyle so vividly. “Although I like that my will is essentially a holograph of me. Very in character. Wait, are you—” He turned to face Pepper. “Are you _crying_?”

“Shut up. You’d cry if you watched me die a super realistic death onscreen and then had to see my messages that I made on the off chance that I didn’t make it.”

Tony couldn’t argue with that. Instead of responding, he squeezed the arm around her tighter, dropping a kiss onto Morgan’s soft hair.

“At least Henry Hellrung is around your age, so I don’t have to feel sleazy about checking him out,” Pepper added, causing Tony to snort.

“You’re absolutely right.” 

“I like the me-Hulk thing,” Bruce said. “I’m not as angsty as I was in the first two movies.”

“Of course you’re not,” Thor said. “You have me now.” 

Bruce flashed him a warm smile. “Pot belly and all,” he said with a huff of laugher.

“Pot belly and all,” Thor repeated as he closed the gap between their faces, leaning close to Bruce to kiss him deeply.

“Hey, Clint,” Natasha said. “You should get that haircut and the tattoos. I dare you.”

“I double dare you.” Tony joined in instantly.

Clint crossed his arms. “What makes you think I won’t?”

“Well, that settles it,” Thor said. “We have an excellent tattoo artist in New Asgard. I shall take you there tomorrow—”

Clint made a noise in the back of his throat. “Maybe not _that_ soon. You gotta think a little before you get an entire fucking sleeve. My wife and kids get dusted, and you think I suddenly go get an armful off tatts? Nah, man. That’s a culmination of ink over those five years. I bet I got one after every depressing kill. Or anniversary.”

“So in five years’ time, we can count on you having an armful of tatts?” Peter asked. He’d been quiet all through the evening, seated on the floor by Tony’s feet, but there was a lightness in his eyes now as he listened to everyone in the room banter.

“He’s not as edgy as he likes to make himself look,” Natasha whispered to Peter loudly from across the room.

“Kid, you’re too young to even _think_ about tattoos, let alone say the word,” Clint said, pointing a wafer stick at him and tossing another at Natasha.

“Hey, technically I’m like in my early twenties right now.”

“Pete, we talked about this,” Tony said. “We don’t count the Soul Stone time. We also avoid _talking_ about the Soul Stone time because it gives me heart palpitations.”

Rhodey snorted. “It gives _you_ heart palpitations? They didn’t even let us hug! There’s _actual footage_ of us hugging in the real thing, but they go with a death-bed cheek pat.”

Tony frowned. “It was more like…a cheek cradle. Which I’m a big fan of, by the way. Love me a good War Machine cheek cradle.” He turned to Rhodey accusingly. “How come you’ve never cradled my cheek the way they did? I thought we were friends.”

Rhodey was sitting on the other end of the sofa, with a tray of popcorn between him and Tony, Pepper, and Morgan. He sighed, leaning his body over the tray. “There, happy?” he said. He’d smooshed his hands on both sides of Tony’s face, so his cheeks were squashed between them and his lips stuck out like a fish.

Pepper stuck an M&M in them. “Perfectly happy,” she said. “That was for Morgan, by the way. FRIDAY, take a photo, please.”

Tony sucked in the chocolate. “Maybe martyring myself and dying an epic death would’ve been worth it for that,” he said with a wink towards Rhodey.

“No joking about death, Stark,” Natasha said from across the room. “It’s a few years too soon for that.”

Tony inclined his head to Natasha, acknowledging her words. He hadn’t gotten over seeing her eerily similar actor’s body lying at the bottom of that cliff, and wouldn’t anytime soon.

At that moment he suddenly realised that there hadn’t been a peep out of Steve since the movie had ended – hell, since Tony’s onscreen death.

He turned to him. “Steve? You good?”

Steve was staring at the screen with a furrow in his brow. “I don’t get it. Why do they think I’d go back to the 40’s?” he asked. There was a strange note of hurt and indignation in his voice. 

“Maybe they think that’s a fitting ending to your story, Cap.” Tony shrugged. His heart fluttered rapidly in his chest as the next words came out of his mouth. “Do you want to go back? I still have the time ma—”

“No!” Steve said instantly. He looked at Tony incredulously. “Tony, _no_. Why would you even _ask_  that?”

Tony floundered slightly, relief coursing through him. “I dunno, Steve. We’ve never really talked about it, y’know? And maybe you stuck around instead of following that script because you felt you owed it to us or something.”

Steve went to speak, and then closed his mouth. He sighed, kneading his eyes with a thumb and forefinger. “Just to be clear,” he said. He looked up, making eye contact with everyone in the room. “To be _one hundred percent clear_ to everyone here. I’ve lived here, in this time and this world, for over a _decade_. Maybe there was a time when I would’ve jumped at the chance to go back to when I left, to go on that date and maybe end up marrying Peggy, but that’s long passed. I’ve…this is my _home_ now.” He turned to Tony, who was frozen under Steve’s intense gaze. “You gave me a home, and a team, and above all else, a _family_. It might be hard here sometimes, but it’s where I belong now.

“Peggy had a full life. She was surrounded by her family when she died and respected by everyone she’d ever worked with. If I went back in time, I’d be erasing and risking so much of that. She _loved_ her kids and her husband. And I’ve moved on. I moved on a long time ago.”

There was a silence. Steve turned to look at his clenched hands, flexing and unflexing them. No one knew quite what to say to his impromptu speech. 

Finally, Pepper cleared her throat. “Steve?” He looked up at her. “I’m glad you’d choose to stay.”

Clint found his voice. “Yeah, man. Coop _loves_ you. He’d kill me if I let his favourite Avenger go.” 

Steve let out a watery laugh.

A chorus of voices joined in. 

"Don't lie, Rogers. You'd miss having the Internet—"

"Steve, you aren't allowed to channel Captain America in your out-of-uniform speeches. I thought we went over this—"

"—only reason you aren't going back right this instant is because you _know_ you wouldn't survive without me cooking—"

“Yeah, mister. I’d miss you. _We’d_ miss you.” Tony gave Steve a tiny smile, trying to show him everything he felt in that one gesture. He barked out a laugh. "I'd miss that giddy optimism of yours," he quoted.

“I’d miss you too, Tony,” Steve replied back, completely sincere as he gazed at Tony. "The rest of you are assholes."

“Daddy, is it finished?” the bundle in his lap spoke.

Tony turned his eyes to Morgan with a gentle smile. “Yeah, baby. You missed the cool battle and Daddy kicking butt.”

“You always kick butt,” she mumbled, turning her head into his stomach and falling back asleep.

“You should take her up to bed,” Pepper whispered to him. "Before Steve gets her saying 'ass'."

Tony gathered Morgan up in his arms, making sure to keep his movements smooth. It probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway – she didn’t stir as he placed her head on his shoulder, one arm going around her knees and another over her back, holding her tight to his chest. She breathed quietly by his ear as he walked to her bedroom. 

Tony and Pepper had designed it themselves, and they’d had a record number of heated, lengthy debates over the aesthetic and design of every single feature. Tony sometimes wondered whether it’d be the same with their second, if they ever had one.

Tucking Morgan under the covers, Tony paused for a moment at the door. The nightlight gave the room enough visibility for him to be able to see her peaceful features as she slept, a Hulk plushie in her arms. He’d fought his way out of every hell he’d ever been thrust into for this. He thought of that other Tony, in that movie world, who’d sacrificed himself so that his world may survive and _thrive_ , and relief flooded him that he hadn’t had to be the one to do that. He’d gotten to come home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Come [talk to me on tumblr](http://fanfictiongreenirises.tumblr.com/) if you want to discuss the movie or anything =)


End file.
